Information management systems protect and manage various types of data and metadata used by networked computing devices. The various types of data and metadata may include file server data, mail server data, network identities of the computing devices, and the status of data backup jobs. The various types of data and metadata are typically stored in data structures, e.g., databases. While databases and other data structures may provide excellent features for organizing information, the inherent format of the data, e.g., rows and columns, is not user-friendly. In other words, looking at tens, hundreds, or thousands of rows and columns of data is non-intuitive and is a challenging way for a user to perform an at-a-glance analysis of the contents of the database. As a result, various techniques have been developed for graphically representing the contents of information management system databases and other data structures. However, the commonly used techniques suffer from various shortcomings.
One example technique for graphically representing database contents includes using fixed charts or graphs. Fixed charts or graphs are those which are configured to graphically represent the exact same content over time. Fixed charts or graphs may consume a considerable amount of effort to initially format as desired, but may provide visually appealing and understandable representations of database contents. The complexity of the fixed charts or graphs may require an information technology (IT) administrator to write code in a database-friendly language to automate the process of database content extraction and graphing. Because of the time, cost, and complexity associated with changing fixed charts or graphs, making changes to the fixed charts or graphs can be inconvenient to a person without database programming skills.
Other shortcomings associated with graphically representing the contents of information management system databases includes an inability to represent information from databases that have different formats. For example, some organizations use one type or model of database or database management system for one part of a computing environment but use another type or model of database or database management system for another part of the computing environment. As a result, the databases operated by an organization may have incompatible formatting. The incompatible formatting makes it difficult to graphically represent information from both or all types or models of databases in a single graphical representation. For example, an organization may use a relational database model, e.g., a SQL database, to manage the operations of a first set of networked computing devices, but the organization may use an object-oriented database model, e.g., an Oracle database, to manage the operations of a second set of network computing devices. While the contents of the SQL database and the Oracle database may be similar, the organization of information in each type of database is different, thereby making joint graphical representation difficult.
The need exists for systems and methods that overcome the above problems, as well as systems and methods that provide additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and methods and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems and methods will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.